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Welcome to our annual Investment Funds Update, our briefing highlighting the key 2018 legal developments which impact the investment funds’ industry and previewing what can be expected in 2019. Whilst Brexit has undoubtedly been the focus this past year and will continue to be so into 2019, there have also been a number of other key developments and upcoming proposals which it is important to be aware of.
Funders in the specialty finance sector lend into finance companies or groups of finance companies which themselves make loans available (whether on a secured or unsecured basis) to companies, partnerships, sole traders and individual consumers.
Brexit will give rise to an array of complex commercial and legal issues in the regulatory, trade and environmental law spheres. These apply across the spectrum - from site-based operations, to products, export and trade, to regulated industries, through to the governance of compliance and risk by businesses more generally.
The Government has released the long-awaited White Paper on its post-Brexit immigration policy. The White Paper sets out the proposed immigration regime that would apply from 1 January 2021.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy ("BEIS") has published its response to its consultation on potential reforms to limited partnership law (published in April 2018). The reforms seek to address concerns that Scottish limited partnerships ("SLPs") have been used for improper purposes. The reforms will affect all UK limited partnerships registered under the Limited Partnerships Act 1907 ("LP Act"). The proposals have implications for private funds structured as limited partnerships, both in terms of the fund vehicle itself and any carry or feeder partnerships in the fund structure, and also for other vehicles used in connection with private funds, such as co-investment vehicles.
Advocate General Manuel Campos Sánchez-Bordona published on 4 December 2018 his opinion (which, as discussed further below, does not bind the ECJ, which will be considering the same issue as the AG at a later date) on whether, under Article 50 of the TEU, the UK can unilaterally revoke the notice of its intention to leave the EU.
Welcome to the latest edition of our Anti-Bribery Newsletter, our regular review of developments in the fight against bribery and corruption in the UK and other jurisdictions.
Earlier this week, the FRC published the final Wates Corporate Governance Principles for Large Private Companies (the "Principles"), which provide a framework for large private companies to comply with their new corporate governance reporting requirements under The Companies (Miscellaneous Reporting) Regulations 2018 (the "Regulations"). The new requirements apply in relation to financial years beginning on or after 1 January 2019, and BEIS stated in its recently updated FAQs on the Regulations that it expects the Principles to be widely adopted. For background information on the Regulations please see our client note and table summarising the scope of the Regulations.
As the 3 December 2018 deadline for online traders to comply with the new EU Geo-blocking Regulation has just passed, we look at what exactly it will mean for UK based businesses, and whether Brexit changes the picture for them.
Doug Bryden and John Buttanshaw write for Who's Who Legal on Responsible investment.
Prime Minister Theresa May has delayed Parliament's vote on the proposed Withdrawal Agreement which would govern the terms of the UK's departure from the EU. It remains to be seen whether there will be sufficient support for the deal when Parliament comes to vote on it in January 2019.
Recent months have borne witness to increasing pressure from NGOs, watch groups and the UK Government on organisations to comply with their corporate reporting obligations under the UK's Modern Slavery Act (MSA). If you fail to comply, be prepared for public "naming and shaming" in 2019.
On 15 November 2018, the European Court of Justice ("ECJ") found in favour of a challenge to the European Commission’s 2014 decision to give state aid approval to the scheme establishing a Capacity Market in the UK. As a result, the Capacity Market has entered into a 'standstill period' - preventing the Government from holding any capacity auctions or making any capacity payments, until such time as it successfully obtains state aid clearance.
Key employment and business immigration developments for employers.
Price matching rights were the subject of a recent dispute between Rangers Football Club and Sports Direct. They typically allow an incumbent supplier to match an offer that its customer has obtained from a competing supplier.
The European Medicines Agency (the EMA) is set to relocate to Amsterdam after Brexit and want to exit their London-based lease on the basis of the principle of legal 'frustration'. Its landlords, Canary Wharf Group, argue that they should still be liable for their leasehold obligations for the rest of the 25 year term, ending in 2039.
Over the summer, EU judges reached an important decision which vindicates the European Commission's stance that even minority investors can be liable for the competition infringements of investee companies.